Words that bleed

feminicide in Mulheres Pilhadas, by Patrícia Melo

Abstract

This article aims to discuss some of the unfolding and responses of contemporary Brazilian literature before the brazilian reality of femicide. In this sense, from the novel Mulheres empilhadas (2019), by Patrícia Melo, it is discussed how misogyny and sexism can result in violence against women. For this, it starts from the notion of homo violens (DANDOUN, 1998) and a prototype of the term violence (MICHAUD, 1989) as an attempt to explain some of the triggers of this category. Starting from Pierre Bourdieu (2019), the asymmetry of the relationship between men and women is pointed out as one of the fundamental elements to the production of violence against women and how symbolic violence should not be understood in opposition to concrete violence. Then, it is analyzed some elements of the Brazilian patriarchal sociopolitical and historical structure, which are responsible for the several manifestations of violence against women that permeate public and private space. Consequently, it is discussed how this structure of silencing and oppression against the female body and voice occurs in this literary narrative. The objective of this article is to approach some of the possibilities of reading on this theme and to point out the contemporary literature as an opening to understand this framework of systemic violence against women.

[Received on: April 18, 2023 - Accepted on: June 10, 2023]